Week 4 - Frugal February (Overbudget)

Today I made my second trip on double coupon week - this was the "real" shopping for the week - yesterday was just for the big deals :) Although I have to say I got a number of good deals tonight too! And doubled another 20 coupons.

However, I have gone over budget. Not for my usual $400 a month budget but my hoped for $50/week is not going as well as I had planned. I have discovered it's very hard to spend so little if you have no meat stocked up and if you spend a good $15 a week on milk!

So, today I got:



I spent: $58.34
And saved: $94.42

My best deals (match-ups from The Coupon Mom):

Hormel Pork Filet
- regular price: $9.99
- sale price: 50% off - $4.99
- used 2 $1.00/1 coupons from S 2/7
- final price: $2.99

Cheese Nips
- regular price: $2.39
- sale price: buy 1 get 1 free
- used 2 $1.00/1 coupons from S 1/24
- final price for one box: free
- I opted to buy 4 boxes because HT does not give overage and I didn't want to "waste" my doubled coupon by having it only double to $1.20 instead of $2.00 so for 2 boxes I paid: $0.39 or $0.20/box!

Quaker Instant Oatmeal
- regular price: $2.99
- sale price: none
- used 5 $1.00/1 coupons from RP 2/7
- final price: $0.99/each

Dannon Danimals Coolision
- regular price: $2.79
- sale price: none
- used 4 $1.00/1 coupons from S 2/7
- final price: $0.79/each

There are lots of deals at HT this week - a lot of empty shelves too so I would get there early! Barilla Pasta is on sale buy 2 get 3 free and the shelves were almost bare and it's only Thursday! It pays to shop early.

Week 3 - Frugal February

I was certainly much closer to my goal for the coming week. Of course, it was easier since I already know that next week is dollar doubler. I also didn't do much in the way of meal planning since we still have some meals left over from last week that we haven't used yet and I will pick a few more things up for meals when I start shopping again on Wednesday :) Yes, I'm going back early but I'm still going to try and stay within my $50 budget for the week. Other than milk that should get me through till March. I'm very much hoping for great deals next week to stretch my dollar!

For this week I got:


(not pictured: 4 gallons of milk)

I spent: $45.36
And saved: $37.43

I did make one mistake. The Fruit Loops "to-go" cereal cups were buy 2 get 3 free. I guess there was a limit of 10 which I did not know even though I checked the shelf tag and it did NOT say there was a limit. But when I checked my receipt later I realized that I only got 6 free and not 9 like I had hoped so that cost me a few dollars more than I had planned to spend. Oh well, the kids will still eat and love them.

Best deals:

Kellogg's Cereal
- regular price: $3.19/each
- sale price 2/$5.00
- used 2 printable coupons from coupons.com $1.50/2
- final price: $1.75/each
- I also received a $3.00 off my next order Catalina for buying 4 boxes so that brings the price down to $1.00 a box
- I do know that the $1.50 off coupon will double next week but the difference was only $0.10 so I picked them up this week anyway (of course if they are on sale again next week that will be a different story)

Country Crock spread
- regular price: $1.99/each
- sale price: buy 1 get 1 free
- used $1.25/2 coupon from RP 1/31
- final price: $0.25/each
(I didn't actually use the coupon - I am saving it till Wednesday because I have a raincheck for buy 1 get 1 free spread for the larger size and my $1.25 coupon will double to $2.50 off which saves me a lot more)

Cole Garlic bread (coupon match-up from Southern Savers)
- regular price: $3.19/each
- sale price: buy 1 get 1 free
- used 2 printable $0.50/1 coupons from HERE
- final price: $0.60/each

Other match-ups from the Coupon Mom